Aya Ueto (26) will star in a new NHK drama series in January
2013, it has been announced. The series, titled "Itsuka Hi no Ataru
Basho de" (Someday, Somewhere Under the Sun), is an adaptation of the Asa Nonami (51) novel by the same name and its second installment, "Surechigau Senaka o".

Ueto will play the role of Hako Komoridani, a college student whose
affair with a man she is helping become a top-ranking club host plunges
her into debt. In order to solve her precarious financial situation, she
begins seducing men into following her to love hotels where she then
drugs and robs them.

Komoridani is eventually arrested and
sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment. At the women's penitentiary, she
meets Ayaka Eguchi (played by Naoko Iijima), a mother serving a
5-year sentence for the murder of her abusive husband, who is in fact
covering for her son's crime. After their release, Komoridani becomes a
dog wear designer while Eguchi finds work in a bakery.

The
series will tell the story of a friendship between two self-reliant
women carrying the burden of a past they want to bury who find support
and encouragement from each other.

Commenting on the casting of Ueto, a production member explained, "She
can handle this type of multidimensional role with a natural
spiritedness. She is also the perfect fit for this character who has all
these men wrapped around her finger. Her love life after being released
from prison will be interesting to follow."

Filming began on May 17 in Tokyo. In a press statement, Ueto comments, "I
want my portrayal of this woman who reintegrates society after having
committed a crime and whose new-found interactions with the outside
world help her grow as a person to be as real as possible." "Naoko is sweet and tough," Ueto said about her co-star. "She feels just like an older sister to me."

Other cast members include Takumi Saitoh (30), comedian Shūsuke Fukutoku (28), and Atsuko Asano (51). Singer-songwriter Yumi Matsutoya (58) will provide the theme song for the drama.